Michiru Matsushima
Michiru Matsushima (松嶋みちる, Matsushima Michiru) is a second-year student at Mihama Academy. She is a fake tsundere with bleached blond twin tails. She has a deep interest in tsundere character and tries to act like one. Her silly and energetic personality makes her the moodmaker of the class. Her grades are bad. She always carries with her a shark-shaped pouch which contains lemonade sweets. Despite having difficulty with sour foods, she still tries to drink 100% pure Vitamin C in order to “improve her intelligence”, as she said. She has encountered a lot of bad luck since her birth, but always manages to get through in one way or another. Appearance Michiru has bleached, blonde hair which is tied into two ponytails. Her face changes depending on her mood and whenever she is portrayed as a chibi character. Her bust size is second to the smallest, with Makina at the last and Amane at the first among Mihama Academy girls. Her usual outfit is a white button-up shirt with loosely-fit red shorts and thigh-high socks; paired with a ribbon on her left leg and a distinct pink shark pouch around her waist. She also wears a small choker with a little gold pendant. Even in her school uniform, she wears the pouch. Personality Michiru has two entirely split personalities. When talking about Michiru it's important to distinguish between the personality she has when you meet her, and her "other self" which appears during her route. During the common route, Michiru is an energetic yet erratic person. She speaks a lot in tsundere stock phrases in an attempt to act like one, as she is very interested in them. She often sets herself up to be the brunt end of the joke in order to do things like diffuse tense situations, as well as bring others, such as Yumiko, into the group. She also offers equal parts insightful commentary and ludicrous statements, often to the bewilderment of the rest of the group as to her actual intelligence level. Similarly, she has flashes of empathy and kindness that escape from under her tsundere act, again to the others' bemusement. This haphazard behaviour is actually a facade put up by Michiru. In reality she is a fearful person due to an "other self" that manifests at difficult times. This other self is a nihilistic and defeatist, yet honest and hard-working, personality that speaks with a deeper and darker tone. This personality arises to help Michiru out of tough situations and has full recollection of Michiru's actions, yet Michiru cannot remember the things that this other self does. (In the sequel visual novels and the anime series, Michiru is able to synchronize with her other personality and tends to chat with her after Yuuji helped her understand herself better.) Background *SPOILER ALERT* Michiru was born to a fairly wealthy family, who held high expectations for her as their daughter. They hired advanced tutors with the intention of training her academically as well as in the arts, such as piano. However, Michiru's lack of ability caused her tutors to become frustrated and eventually bully and abuse her, which happened without her parents' knowledge. Her parents began to think that Michiru wasn't gifted like they'd hoped; but they were still happy that she appeared to be healthy. Upon the revelation from a doctor's checkup that she had a heart condition, her parents' expectations had been all but failed and they gradually stopped giving her attention. Michiru became deeply depressed as a result; she would spend days just sitting still in her room because according to her "sitting still was the only talent she had". Michiru's school life was spent alone and brooding, with permeating feelings of invisibility and uselessness. As she was contemplating jumping from the roof of the school, she encountered another girl about to jump. Out of envy that the girl had managed to build up the courage to jump, Michiru inadvertently prevented her from going through with it by calling out to her. The two proceeded to become close friends, helping Michiru come out of her shell and find interest in the world around her. It turned out that her new friend was unable to overcome her own depression and, in front of Michiru, eventually jumped from the building for real. The shock that Michiru felt seeing her only friend take her own life caused her to collapse from her already frail heart. Having been rushed to hospital, the doctors concluded she required a heart transplant. Fortunately, she acquired a suitable heart from a donor in America whom had become paralyzed in a traffic accident, and Michiru successfully gained a new heart. However, the operation triggered an apparent case of dissociative identity disorder, giving rise to a completely different person in Michiru, referred to in her route as "the other Michiru". This "Michiru" was much more sociable, smart and popular, and appeared to help the original Michiru get her life on track whenever she was in a dark place. But eventually, Michiru felt the psychological effect of having two split personalities and attempted to take her own life by stabbing her chest trying to remove the other Michiru's presence from her body. After this incident, Michiru returned to hospital where she was prescribed medication that would suppress the "other Michiru". During her time in the ward, she happened to notice that things like her innocent clumsiness made other people in the ward laugh. Seeing this as an imparting of good onto others - making people laugh - Michiru realised that she could combat her feelings of uselessness by giving others joy and letting them laugh and smile. She then proceeded to construct a clumsy-tsundere personality to make this task easier. After being released from the ward some time later, she enrolls into Mihama Academy as the third student after its establishment. *'SPOILERS END*' Plot (Anime) Grisaia no Kajitsu Michiru was introduced on Yuuji's first day of school as the earliest student to arrive. Yuuji mistook Michiru's tsundere act practice as a singing practice when first approaching her. Michiru tried to introduced herself awkwardly while keeping up with her tsundere act, even going as far as demanding Yuuji to call her "Michiru-sama". However, she quickly took it back once Yuuji realised this and called her out. Unfortunately, due to their previous interaction, Sachi called her "Michiru-sama" as soon as she arrived alongside Amane and Makina, which prompt Yuuji to tease her, much to her annoyance. Michiru is the first focused arc of the girls. On her first arc episode, Michiru was found by Yuuji during his morning jogging. They had a conversation with the ending that Michiru asked to him what it feels to die, which giving an odd vibe to Yuuji. Later on, Michiru was shocked to have him talking with Sachi without thinking after she asked Sachi to fix her shark pouch. Yuuji became depressed for unintentionally made himself agreeing to wear the same pink shark pouch forever as it was happened because of his sleep lacking and it troubled Michiru until Makina arrived. Michiru suddenly got personality to be swapped and baited Makina to have the pouched after being turned into a hush dog pouch instead. However, Michiru was yet to know about her swapping clearly and told Yuuji that she didn't know about helping Yuuji. Michiru got another swapping personality again after she returned to the dorm and was asked about friendship with opposite gender. She ran away and was discovered by Yuuji. The other personality introduced herself, even went far to kiss Yuuji. Yuuji noticed the personality disorder, but yet to be able for accepting it so he tested on Michiru on the next day by making an attempt to kiss her. The shock was strong enough even to have her unintentionally told a black cat which used to play with her away from her. Michiru felt guilty and wanted to say sorry for it until Yuuji found it had died due a traffic. Yuuji learned about Michiru's past and noticed that Michiru had a traumatic over friendship. The trauma had once almost killing her until she got a heart transplantation after her short time best friend attempted a suicide right in front of her. However, the operation gave her a side effect to be embodied with another soul of the one who has the heart. Michiru's traumatic towards the death of the black cat led her to stay quiet and asked for her other one to act in exchange. Yuuji noticed that the current Michiru is not the idiot Michiru and told off the fake Michiru to call on her, but the fake one refused to do so because she herself couldn't help the real one. Yuuji then drugged her by force to have the real one coming and she begged to die. Yuuji doused Michiru off and had her to be buried alive besides the lighthouse as she had once wished for it. Yuuji told Michiru to decide either she tried her best to get out or just staying there until she was suffocated to death. Michiru initially choosing to die, but the idea of being suffocated feared her more and had her doing her best to get out, but not before she peed herself due to the fear. Yuuji had waited for her and already expected Michiru to get out from the beginning and didn't close the hole entirely. After Michiru accepted to keep on living, Yuuji asked JB about Michiru's heart donor and took her to their home. Michiru swapped her personality to give the other "Michiru" a chance to talk to her mother. Since then, Michiru have made peace with her other personality and occasionally swapped with her, something which only Yuuji seems to noticed. During Yumiko's arc, Michiru tried to scold Yumiko's father. She rush into the dorm after Yumiko made a warning shot with a gun. During Sachi's arc, Michiru complaint about the upcoming test and request Sachi to stop the test a joke. However, Sachi still accept the request and take the task seriously. Michiru awkwardly let Michiru to do so and the latter complained that the test will still ongoing. On the night before the test, Yuuji set up Michiru and the rest of the girls to meet with Sachi, unaware that Sachi had plant bombs around the school earlier as part of her plant to get rid of the test. Michiru and the others were later prompt to leave the dorm to see a fireworks, which Yuuji set up as a replacement cover for the exploding bomb. During Makina's arc, Michiru gave 2000 yen to Yuuji and Makina before they ran away from school, as Makina's family attempt to dispose of her. Once they have returned, Michiru demanded for her money, but was ignored. During Amane's final part of the arc, Michiru alongside the girls were held hostage by Sakashita to bait Amane for coming to the academy when she was on trip with Yuuji to visit the bus accident site which was experienced by Amane. Michiru unintentionally helped Makina on breaking the urinal in the male's toilet when Yuuji asked Makina to do so as Michiru begged Makina to take her to the toilet with her. She peed herself and went unconscious until the case is over. Because of that, she changed her suit to the gym uniform. Grisaia no Meikyuu Michiru alongside the other Mihama girls learnt of Yuuji's past from the first draft of the document pertaining his past, after it was discovered and restored by Sachi and Makina. Grisaia no Rakuen Michiru alongside the girls were pitied on Yuuji's past life and tried to learn more with them too. She, alongside Makina were screaming in shock to learn that Yuuji had planned on dying after helping the girls to overcome their trauma by reading his writing on the wall inside his wardrobe. They went to Chizuru to learn more on what happened to Yuuji, only to learn that their school and the dorm were about to be shut due the budget problem after the death of Makina's mother which destroyed the reputation of Irisu and losing the support influence greatly. Michiru was initially doubting on going with the girls to save Yuuji until her other personality scolded her off and made a late follow to get out from the school. During their first night to stay in the new dorm which was a boat house, Michiru was almost to be left and unknowingly having her pocket to be put a phone. The phone rang during the night with the caller introduced herself to be Thanatos and the latter accepted her offer which initially to be refused. The next day, she visited a station's locker to take more phone as the favor from Thanatos for the operation. Michiru was tasked to get income by following Thanatos' step and went as far to go out of country to do so by an airplane and a ship for a day which resulting a great income to get weapons and the rest need. During the operation to rescue Yuuji, Michiru was with Amane to take Yuuji away. At night after Yuuji had been rescued, Michiru was tasked by Kazuki after she introduced herself to be the Thanatos who helped them for cutting the line of Thanatos to shut them down completely by diving. Afterward, she got troubled for getting out from the suit which leading her to pee herself after Sachi's scary attempt to break the suit. Months later, Michiru was fixated on keep studying and yelled at Kazuki which getting a reply "due you are an idiot" by her, especially for misspelled her name. Plot (Visual Novel) Grisaia no Kajitsu Michiru first met Yuuji during one of her rehearsal session in one of the classroom. At an attempt to make a good first impression, she fire off lines that she practiced for the occasion. However, when Yuuji called out her "tsundere" act, she became shocked and revert to her true nature. Due to Yuuji's lack of understanding for women in general, his attempt to cheer her up ends up infuriating her even more. Michiru's route *Warning, this section contain spoilers from Grisaia no Kajitsu* The route begins with Yuuji having a chance meeting Michiru in her cliffside view. The meeting goes strangely, however, as Michiru talks in a strange manner, seemingly having different mannerisms than her usual persona. After bantering for a while, Michiru asks Yuuji if she can kiss him, to which he says hes. They kiss, and almost immediately after, Michiru returns to her normal without memory of what just happened. Flustured, she quickly leaves the scene, leaving a baffled Yuuji behind. Eventually, events lead to Michiru asking what she did to Yuuji. Not understanding the euphemism ´first base´ she asked him to show her. Yuuji complies and kisses her, causing her to lock up in shock and barely be able to talk. She leaves the scene and returns to her room. It's at this point where Michiru begins to develop deeper feelings toward Yuuji. After this she began to act strangely around Yuuji. She avoids Yuuji, and when forced to interact with him, can barely hold a decent conversation. Her tsundere act has all but collapsed, and her usual vigor and impulsiveness is noticeably missing. Yuuji's kiss caused Michiru's pre-existing crush on him to develop into a deeper love, though Yuuji is unable to understand this. This all cumulates into the toy-car scene, where Amane tries to force Michiru and Yuuji to reconciliate. In this scene, Michiru is disorientated and obviously suffering, leading her to breakdown and startle both Amane and Yuuji, though Michiru eventually salvages the situation by playing it off as a joke. It's here where Yuuji begins to suspect multiple personalities. After Amane and Sachi leave, ´Michiru´ has a talk with Yuuji telling him to take responsibility for his actions and try to comfort her. Yuuji accepts. The next morning, he arrives in Michiru's room and has a conversation with her, though it's mostly Michiru's monologue. Michiru's tsundere is completely gone before, and the fragility of her character is glaringly obvious. The scene provides us with a few hints regarding Michiru's problems, and in the end, Michiru seems to become a little less depressed. The scene ends with Michiru returning back to her previous tsundere persona. Yuuji discovers that the cat who Michiru had fed before had come to live in Michiru's room. He asks Principal Tachibana to pay for a vaccine, and tries to catch the cat, leading to a variety of misunderstandings with Amane and Sachi. When he catches the cat, and gives him the shot, Michiru sees him and misunderstands and tells him to stop bullying the cat. Later, when she learn of his true intention from Chizuru, she mentions that Yuuji is actually a very caring person and is one of the reason she likes him. Relationships ''Main article: Relationships of Michiru Matsushima '' Gallery See Michiru Matsushima/Image Gallery Trivia * In the visual novel, her name is spelt with hiragana characters (みちる) while her other self is often spelt with katakana characters (ミチル). ** In the English translation, the distinction is made by having a quotation marks around her name for her other self ("Michiru"). * It is only in the anime where Michiru has green eyes as well as blue (Seen first time in Episode 3 when she helped Yuuji avoid wearing a bush dog pouch made by Sachi by giving it to Makina.) ** While some marked this as the first time we see "the other Michiru" in the anime, this strike as odds, since the visual novel counterpart of this scene depicted Michiru's original personality to be the one that helped Yuuji. *** The proof being the fact that she helped out others in the similar way when similar situation arise (coincidentally, most which involved Sachi in some way), and gave the similar response when Yuuji thanked her. However, on her route (due to her circumstance with Yuuji), straight after she helped Amane and Sachi's misunderstanding, she responds awkwardly to Yuuji, proving that her original personality is in control. Furthermore, Amane, despite doing it out of her care for Michiru, unintentionally push the issue too far, and the event escalated to the point Michiru broke down mentally. This forced the other Michiru to take over her body, thus enforcing the fact that these considerate action came from the original Michiru and not her counterpart personality. *** In her good ending route, Yuuji discovered a diary that the original Michiru kept, which contains all of the notes regarding her experience with the others in the dormitory. This shows that the real Michiru does genuinely try to be considerate and helping as much as she could without relying on the other "Michiru". Michiru order the diary to be thrown away along with her secret belonging. However, the other "Michiru" hide it in the ceiling instead, and was implied to have recovered it at the end. * Michiru's route adapted anime episodes are the only episodes to not being titled in parts. * In the visual novel, her bad ending does not result in a death of the main character, unlike most bad endings. ** However, since her bad ending results in her becoming mentally impaired, one can argue that Michiru is "dead" on the inside. * In the anime, Michiru's second personality's eyes resemble those of her deceased best friend. ** This is somewhat odd, as her second personality has nothing to do with her deceased best friend. ** In the anime, it was explained that due to Michiru's witnessing her best friend commit suicide, she collapsed because her heart was weak compared to her best friend's. She has undergone an operation that requires heart transplant, replacing her heart with her best friend. ** In her good ending route, when michiru was buried on the ground, her best friend called her in the cellphone, unlike in the anime, it was shown as a flashback. * Interestingly, Yuuji becomes Michiru's first kiss in both her and Makina's route in the visual novel. ** During her route, Yuuji kissed her when she asked him to demonstrate "first base" to her, which she was unaware of its meaning at the time. *** If you count the other "Michiru" as well, the event takes place when she asked to be kissed out of curiosity. She then coldly states that she still doesn't understand the meaning behind a kiss before swapping place with the real Michiru again. ** During Makina's after story, after Yuuji returns to visit Mihama Academy, Yuuji visits her while she was still half asleep. This caused her to think she was in the "usual" dream and demanded him to kiss her. After kissing him twice and realizing that the Yuuji standing before her is real, she attempts to forget this ever happened. * She has the most facial expression changes; as her cartoon-ish expressions in certain scenarios are not present in the other four characters. Category:Characters Category:Main Characters Category:Females